Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Russia announces rearmament plan

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow will begin a comprehensive military rearmament from 2011.

Mr Medvedev said the primary task would be to "increase the combat readiness of [Russia's] forces, first of all our strategic nuclear forces".

Explaining the move, he cited concerns over Nato expansion near Russia's borders and regional conflicts.

My Views:

This announcement by Medvedev is not surprising given how Russia has re-emerged as a force since Putin took charge. Russians want their influence intact and the plans by NATO to expand into Russian influence territory has not gone well into their throats. Recent Georgia event was an open announcement by Russia that they will not tolerate NATO moving inwards towards nations under its influence.

The Americans definitely are not happy with it but they are helpless at best. They can not directly counter Russia for several reasons ranging from strategical to economic hurdles. American forces are engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan and are short on resources to meaningfully counter Russia. To add to the problem is non-cooperation by European members of NATO given their dependence on Russian energy supplies as well as their geographic location which would make those countries suffer more consequences as they don't enjoy being on the right side of the Atlantic ocean as does US of A.

The situation is complex but what I see here is more rhetorics by both camps than any real danger of re-emergence of cold war. I know this news may become hot topic for few days in global media but most of these things are worthless to even consider. The only threat is if the economic conditions weaken so bad that govts need to enter into conflicts (inspired by WWII).